Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from Committee members.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Edwards - Exeter City Council – Leader and Karime Hassan – Exeter City Council - Chief Executive & Growth Director.

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 21 June 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 21 June 2016 were taken as read and signed by the Chair as correct.

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were made.

Presentation by the Chief Operating Officer.

The Servicedesk Team Leader gave a presentation of the Global Desk Top.

Members were shown how the global desk top operated including:-

·         new applications which included Microsoft office 2013;

·         the new look outlook;

·         instant messaging including group conversations and officers availability;

·         the use of Skype as a telephone system;

·         how the system keep data saved in a power cut; and

·         how the remote login works.

Executive were advised that the instant messages are recorded for audit purposes in a similar way to email Members would be consulted on the options for their future IT  - global desk top or office 365 in due course.

The Chief Operating Officer advised on progress with the roll-out of the Global Desktop (GD). Following initial problems with two or three software glitches at Exeter, roll-out there had been delayed until April of this year but more major difficulties had been experienced at East Devon District Council, and as a result, the management teams had changed the priority of migration. It was now anticipated that completion would occur by April 2017.The change of plan for the roll out of the GD meant that Teignbridge would migrate to the GD by the end of year with East Devon following. 600 staff had been transferred to GD with the total number to be 1,800.

The Chief Operating Officer gave an update on the Capacity and Convergence Plan.

·         the convergence plan could take up to five years to complete as identified in the original Business Case;

·         assessment of timing and delivery of project planning was based on staff resources and ability of councils to manage change;

·         the time lines for the projects were constantly moving for example the Bacs project had to move forward to take account of changes in regulations;

·         there were 20 Analysts to deal with business change requests as well as take forward projects - basic rules and guidelines were being introduced to manage projects and time scales;

·         a key element of the Business Case and Delivery team was the split between project and other work and project work was split between high and low intensity; and

·         there were currently 60 projects, of which 35 were at the delivery stage, there were also 365 business change requests.

The Chief Operating Officer clarified that meetings take place with Senior Officers for them to identify their IT priorities; there was capacity to deal with projects and business requests but it would be a case of each Council also identifying their priorities.

RESOLVED that the presentations be noted.

To consider the report of the Chief Operating Officer.

The Chief Operating officer presented the report advising Members on the progress of Strata and the change of plan for the roll out of the Global Desktop.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 15 September 2016 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To consider the report of the Director (Finance Lead).

The Director (Finance Lead) presented the report advising Members on the financial progress of Strata during the first three months of 2016-17, including a project outturn assessment against the savings set out in the Business Plan. 

The original business case for Strata had set out a savings profile over the initial 10 year period of the company, with savings of £254,000 budgeted for 2016/17. The projected saving at the beginning of 2016/17, as a result of additional costs from the transfer of staff to new Strata terms and conditions, had been £26,964. It was now anticipated that the savings would be £97,225. The final Statement of Accounts differed by only £750 from the draft accounts set out in March.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 15 September 2016 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The report of the Strata Human Resource Lead was submitted outlining progress update on key Human Resource work and in particular the completion of the restructures within Strata.

In response to a question from the Leader of East Devon District Council regarding the need for a structure chart, the Chief Operating Officer clarified that a Strata Intranet for all three authorities would be available by the end of October and this would include a structure chart for the organisation.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 15 September 2016 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the report on progress with Strata restructure and the people data as in the circulated report be noted.

RESOLVED that, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of item 11 on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Part I, Schedule 12A of the Act. 

RESOLVED that, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Part I, Schedule 12A of the Act. 

To consider the Internal Audit Report

The Director (Finance Lead) presented the Strata Internal Audit Report 2015/16 produced by the Devon Audit Partnership following its successful tender bid for a three year contract.

The Audit opinion was that the systems and controls generally mitigated the risk identified but a few weaknesses had been identified and/or mitigating controls had not been fully applied. There were no significant matters arising from the audit and the recommendations made served to strengthen what were mainly reliable procedures.

“Good standard” levels of assurance had been given for each of the following areas covered during the audit:-

·         ICT Strategy;

·         Change Management;

·         Incident and Problem solving; and

·         Key operational functions.

In response to Members’ questions, the Director (Finance Lead) clarified the position with regards to the contract with Devon Audit Partnership and that the next area to be audited would be Governance. This report would be brought to Members in December.

Members discussed the definitions and what was required by Strata Solutions to meet the measure of high standards and priorities.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 15 September 2016 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.